Round Valley Reservoir Question.

[Blackfishhead]

Originally Posted by reason162

Lol excellent idea...with all the scud in that lake I'd opt for gobies, probably grow some yuuuuuge smallmouth eventually!

NO gobies!
They do more harm than good for the bass population.

[Billfish715]

In a time long, long ago, when the "Valley" was being created, the original fisheries' design was for the reservoir to be a smallmouth bass impoundment and would be managed as such. The state did supplemental stockings of trout, but it was thought the "Valley" would provide a possibility for trophy small mouths.

Lake trout were not even on the menu until much later. The continued stockings of browns and rainbows paid dividends due in major consequence to the abundance of herring as a forage base and small mouths were often ignored. The continuing erosion of the shoreline added to the expansion of silt which began to interfere with the development of the smallmouth's preferred environment and production.

Now, add lake trout to the mix. Essentially, the reservoir would have a two layer trout fishery. Lake trout could be found on the bottom and rainbows and browns from mid depths up to the surface. Small mouths would occupy the flooded timber areas. All of these fish dined on the protein-rich herring and then something happened that is still being debated. The herring population seriously declined and the trophy brown trout did also. The lakers were now reproducing and were it not for supplemental brown and rainbow trout stockings by the RVTA and the state, there would be no trout fishing for the shoreline fishermen since the browns and rainbows don't naturally reproduce in impoundments with no natural freshwater inlets.

Before asking for any improvements or changes to the "Valley", remember how it has been managed over the years. Be careful of adding more so that you can harvest less. There needs to be a balance. Something is out of balance in the "Valley" and I think they were man made. Long gone are the early morning lines outside the little bait shop in the shadows of the dam with fishermen waiting to buy herring.

Maybe someone makes a weighted scud fly that will get down to 50'.

[bigfishy]

http://https://www.mycentraljersey.c...on/4568423002/

[thmyorke1]

Originally Posted by bigfishy

http://https://www.mycentraljersey.c...on/4568423002/

https://www.mycentraljersey.com/stor...on/4568423002/

ur link wasnt working so try this

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

They should drain the entire body of water down to 20% capacity. After that’s done they should shock all the fish, take them out and stock the so called “Trophy Trout” in the north and south branch and main stem of the Raritan. The lake
Trout should be put into Monksville and Waywayanda! When all this is said and done we can rename the Res a trophy Largemouth and Perch lake and make it Kayaks only!
There’s going to be a bunch of Tiger and Golden Trout stocked in the coming months. Up to 20 inches from what I hear. I’d rather catch those on a river on 3-4 lb. test instead of trolling gear that is similar and heavier than the gear I use for Striper’s and Blues in the salt! Ohhhh, and there’s gona be some Shiners stocked
to fatten up the Rock Bass. Pretty cool!!!

Take it down to that level, then fill it back with the dirtier river water.
Give the herring food to reestablish there .
Load it with rainbows and browns ,and have another 20 years of the great fishing like before the lake trout were put in there..

.

[Mark B.]

I worked for the NJDF&W as fisheries worker, then as a fisheries biologist at the Lebanon FW Fisheries Lab, Lebanon from 1977 - 2018. I stay in touch with the former trout biologist who worked there 1977-1984. Below are his comments.


"There is so much misinformation and dangerous recommendations in this thread I almost don't know where to begin. I know that SMB's from the Neshanic River were originally stocked in RVR. However, it was never advocated that RVR be managed only as a trophy SMB water. Given that they mostly relate to rocky, bouldery bottoms and shorelines that would have ignored the potential for any pelagic gamefish. I don't know how or why alewives were stocked, but my guess would be to mimic the Great Lakes salmonid miracle that was happening at the time. It was all the rage for many northern tier states to establish alewife, stock trout and/or salmon and manage lakes for trophy trout - the growth rates and sizes of fish caught had not been seen on that scale before. Also in the mix was the semi-annual die-off of alewives, I know that some of the rationale for stocking salmonids in the north was to reduce the alewife populations to reduce the tonnage of stinking dead fish washing up on rich people's shorelines in the spring, but that may have been a reaction to lakes where alewives were already established.

So, as I recall the management concept for RVR (and Spruce Run Res. initially, before it went eutrophic) was to maintain what was called a "two-story" fishery. Warmwater species in the shallows, along the shore and in the epilimnion, and then salmonids in the thermocline and hypolimnion (if D.O. was adequate). One of my first fisheries oriented tasks as a summer worker was to accompany biologists to take water samples at various depths to develop the temp/DO profile for a variety of lakes and the Newark watershed lakes in north Jersey. When I became a biologist I had to continue the annual samplings, much emphasis was placed on trout survival in these lakes, even if the layer of trout survival water was only a few feet in thickness, usually right at the bottom of the thermocline. Much less emphasis was placed on managing the warmwater species in these lakes. As is often observed, the first fish species in a new environment takes off. That is what happened to the SMBs. I heard stories of the first few years, before there was much publicity, that 5 and 6lb SMB were common. As the stocked brown and rainbow trout took advantage of an ample alewive forage base and their new environment (the pelagic water) they took off, providing a trophy trout fishery that NJ had not seen up until that time. My dad worked shift work at the Johns-Manville factory in Manville. It seemed like every guy there bought a 12 to 14 foot boat. That's about the time that my dad bought his 14 Starcraft (1972 I think) that I still have today. With the 10HP outboard limit, guys were scheming all kinds of ways to soup up their engines or use a larger outboard with the cowl from a smaller one. There would be traffic jams at the boat ramp. It couldn't last, the new species boom phenomenon doesn't last forever, but it sure went downhill faster than I would have expected. By the time (1977?) I took over the Lake Trout project, I think the trout fishery was already not as exceptional as it was a few years before. Although, during the annual fall RVR gillnet hauls we used to take some impressive numbers of large brown and rainbow trout. Based on the data and knowledge we had at the time, I don't think the laker stocking was a mistake. Based on more than adequate D.O. levels all the way to the bottom, and the presumed to be over abundant alewive population, there was a large volume of the depths of RVR that another gamefish species could exploit. Things started out OK. The first stocking of lakers grew impressively, we were still seeing plenty of large, fat browns & rainbows, however soon the alewives disappeared. Of course that had an impact on all of the salmonids, but the stocked browns & rainbows just seemed to disappear, while the lakers just got skinny. As I recall during this time, RVR had not been drawn down, nor received any new water from the South Branch, so the fertility was probably getting lower each year. Could the changes in zooplankton have negatively impacted the alewives? Did predation by juvenile lakers on zooplankton change the species composition and abundance? Did lakers prey on YOY alewives to the point of extinction? I have no answer.

What is the answer going forward - I have no idea, but based on some of the things I read from NY F&G, they are having similar problems in Lake Ontario with declining and/or crashing alewive populations. They have decided to cut back on salmonid stocking, to the ire of anglers and especially charter boat operators. The lake trout also seem to be a problem. Stocking rates of lakers have been cut back in many of the finger lakes, and they have been implicated in crashes of both brown/rainbow trout populations. There is no more laker stocking in RVR, but the long life span and whatever natural reproduction is occurring will keep them there for a long time.

I would like to see extensive water chemistry done once RVR is refilled, along with a zooplankton survey. Determine what the estimated production (lbs/acre) could be, and then allocate accordingly between warmwater and salmonids. Many times adding more results in less."

[thmyorke1]

Thanks Mark and fellow colleague for sharing!

[NJSquatch]

Interesting insight. Thanks mark

[AndyS]

I thought I remember hearing the zooplankton study was way too expensive and no one would foot the bill.

[DanH]

Thank you Mark. The site is very fortunate to have your contribution .